Non Conference Scheduling

Now that the NCAA has provided an actual formula (NET Rating) for college basketball rankings, the conference commissioner and the AD’s need to get together and force these teams to play better schedules. Memphis and UCF are the only teams in the conference playing a top 3rd of the the country strength of schedule. (Per Jeff Sagarin). The team ranking is on the left, the strength of schedule on the right. Oddly enough the overall conference strength is exactly the same as last year (7th, behind Big 10, Big 12,ACC, SEC, Big East, Pac 12)

20 Cincinnati ( 247)
27 Central Florida(UCF) ( 101)
44 Houston = ( 350)
79 Temple = ( 193)
80 Connecticut =( 324)
96 Wichita State = ( 112)
108 Memphis = ( 58)
134 SMU = ( 341)
143 Tulsa = ( 316)
189 Tulane = ( 128)
191 South Florida = ( 347)
234 East Carolina = ( 349)

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Yeah, man… I’m not going to complain about OoC schedule this year:

HOME:
Oregon
LSU
Saint Louis
Utah St

ROAD:
BYU
Oklahoma St

Of course all of this is predicated by the assumption that P5 teams are better to begin the year.

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And that 350 ranking is to date, so obviously doesn’t include OKSt, LSU, SLU, et cet.

ESPN has our SOS at 300 and our Strength of Record at 15. To me that means we’re beating up on the teams we should be beating up on.

Yeah Sagarin is a joke. G5 teams (yes I know that there is no G5 and P5 in basketball) work their way up through his ratings and then resets them back of the pack to start the next year and does the opposite for P5 teams. Go ahead and use it for ranking OOC SOS but his conference rankings will always have his bias built into them.

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in our case you can only do so much…you schedule well in advance and st. louis, lsu, OSU, oregon, byu in past years could’ve been a top quarter guantlet…this year not so much…we gotta just win em all and avoid any conference losing streaks…

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Actually, what I was getting at is that the RPI at this time of the year when comparing schedules is really distorted.

It has gotten worse with the invention the last few years of these conference challenges series as they involve typically the so called P5 members only. So if Duke plays a lower level BIG 10 team, they fare better because that team is in a P5.

As the year goes along, the RPI starts to make more sense from reality. This usually happens in March.

To look at it now, is a fools move.

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https://twitter.com/Joseph_Duarte/status/1078449795633766400?s=09

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Yes please!

I would also throw in tomorrow’s opponent, NJ Tech (11-2 and good enough to technically muster AP votes in the latest poll), which is a sneaky ‘bye’ opponent on our schedule. Coogs better be on alert.

But yes, I agree…the SOS has been much improved this year. I’ve been saying for a while…a 13-0 non-conference mark will garner U of H a ton of error margin going into conference play. And as long as nothing crazy happens in the AAC, Coogs should be no worse than a 6-seed in the tournament.

North Carolina pleaseeee!

The tie ins are there.

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The historical tie-ins with a lot of the ACC teams are there (in many sports), which is why I think U of H to the ACC would be the most logical P5 destination if and when.

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I think as long as we keep playing well, we’ll see an uptick in quality of OOC opponents. The Ferttita Center will do wonders for getting bigger names in here, especially those that want to recruit the Houston area. I can’t imagine too many big brand teams were enthusiastic about playing in Hofheinz before the renovation.

I wonder if it is Louisville.

Probably Louisville or Virginia, maybe Syracuse. Doubt it will be Carolina or Duke. Those are the only power ACC schools.

it’s Virginia i think. Tony Bennett and CKS coached at Washington State

Imagine if we become a basketball power again and the ACC believes in us enough to invite us into their conference as a full member! That would solve so many of our problems.

I can dream, right?

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“Fly me to the moon!”

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Virginia is an elite basketball program! Ill take it!

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